I posted something similar on LinkedIn today
While preparing this warning for my white liberal friends, I recalled my favorite Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Man." Aliens had arrived, apparently to save humans from themselves. A small group of code breakers found the aliens' book, but they had only translated the book's title before people started choosing to leave earth with the aliens. As the chief code breaker boards the alien ship, his assistant yells to him, "To Serve Man. It's a cookbook."
In 2020, we should always remember something similar, "We are not his audience. We are his cast."
While we have reduced President Trump to an orange narcissistic sexist simpleton, he has been strategizing. While we have been celebrating the selection of a strong woman of color candidate, he has been revealing his exposition, reintroducing old cast members, and defining characters. Palin is back discussing double standards. Guilfoyle is probably waiting until the second act. Joe will continue to be cast as weak in comparison to Trump or Kamala or Obama. Nancy is uncompromising and controlling. While my team argues that Trump fears strong women, Trump realizes that he needs strong women for an effective drama. He will take Kamala's strengths and turn them into her weakness. We think that she is the safe pick, but they have wanted us to think that she was safe. She isn't safe, nor are the people around her. The other side has been writing this script since she was a DA in San Francisco.
Reality TV is a bad way to manage our government, but it is an effective way to run a Presidential campaign. It's scripted while appearing random. Trump understands how reality TV appeals to Americans. He understands the story structure and archetypes. Americans love the conflict and the serial nature of episodic challenges. Americans love exposing hypocrisy and hubris, and since humans are basically hypocritical, Trump has plenty of material... and he will have plenty of time during the next three months. Most people will believe that the next three months are unscripted, but they are not.
Is it too late to turn the Millennium Falcon around before the tractor beam catches us? Probably, but we still have a chance of predicting how this sequel might unfold. Will we be distracted when Team Trump says something sexist and racist? Of course, but with our one week history of appointing women of color as Vice Presidential running mates, we might want to be careful about judging Republicans.
First, it's a distraction.
Secondly, if we don't live in the same glass house as the Republicans, we're in the same segregated neighborhood. (reminder, this is especially for my white liberal friends.)
While I don't have special information about the details, I know the story. It's a sequel, and it rhymes. For example, when McDonald's sued their former CEO for inappropriate consensual behavior with employees a day before Biden announced Kamala, I assumed that this was an early general election attack. I could be completely wrong, but it fits the story. Since the Harris announcement, there has been more chatter from the Trump side linking sexual harassment to Kamala's opinions. This is all part of the exposition.
(To be fair to McDonald's, my LinkedIn contact and author Rob Chestnut complimented the company's integrity for exposing the CEO. On the other hand, Vanity Fair's William Cohan said on CNBC that it "wouldn't have taken much investigation to discover" in the initial inquiry the previous year. I would encourage you to read the Board bio's and search their SEC political contribution reports to see if McDonald's was trying to help Biden/Harris. Both possibilities fit the story.)
Back to the main story line.
Eventually, Senator and Candidate Harris will be asked what she thinks about the McDonald's CEO. Someone will ask Biden too. (Maybe Trump will turn a Russian debate question in something for Biden to answer about McDonald's. The reporters will say it is stupid and random, but we will be talking about McDonald's.) Maybe Trump will be asked a similar question by a friendly reporter. Soon, this will be a news story. If the McDonald's story doesn't stick, there will be another similar story, because there will always be another similar story for politicians to answer about whether CEO's should be allowed to have intimate secret relationships with staff members.
In 2020, mostly everyone will say no.
Both campaigns will highlight Kamala's questioning of Kavanaugh. (By the way, I thought she asked the single best question of the hearing, but that is not the point of this post.) She will be asked whether she believes survivors. (By the way, I do too.)
Kamala will be applauded or lambasted for her tough debate performance with Biden for something that happened decades ago.
Kamala will be asked to explain her criticism of Mike Pence. What was ridiculous about Pence's boundaries? (In case you forgot.) Her answer was fine, but she was never asked the difficult follow up.
"Why were you so tough on Pence for not having private meetings with staffers since 2002, but you let Gavin Newsom slide in 2005?"
By the way, I don't know Kamala's real answer to what happened 2005. This will be the real conflict of the campaign and where it will start to get interesting. Gavin is to Kamala as Bill was to Hillary. The Democrats lost 2016, because we did not resolve what happened during the Clinton Administration... and we still haven't. We could lose this election because of something that happened in San Francisco during 2005.
If only we had some dramatic elements to create some conflict.
What would you say if Gavin had been married to Donald Trump Jr's current girlfriend? And what would you say if that girlfriend was also a former San Francisco DA and daughter of two immigrants... and what if she had been a long time Fox News Contributor? What if the current Speaker of the House was also from San Francisco when Gavin was mayor? What if Gavin's current wife was a women's rights advocate and filmmaker? And what if this year were the 100th anniversary of that time when white women bailed on women of color while fighting for the right to vote. I haven't even mentioned Willie Brown until now.
Trump was never going to run on a strong economy with drama like this.
I believe in Kamala's ability to handle difficult questions about Gavin, but I doubt that my white liberal friends will really have Kamala's back when the answers get difficult. When the story turns on Gavin, our party will be exposed again, and I hope that my white liberal friends get in formation and don't turn the clock back 100 years when the white women marched without the women of color. Don't just have Kamala's back. Take the lead.
That's why, I am going to say it now. Gavin has got to go.
As one of the first male Women's Studies majors in the country, I have wondered if it has been my obligation to say something louder and earlier. He does not get a free pass, because he went to rehab and discovered "toxic masculinity?" I am also trying to be realistic. When I warned about Clinton and later about the 2016 election, I was mostly ignored. Perhaps someone will feel supported or empowered when reading this one day. We can't allow our own party leaders to violate societal norms, and then be shocked when the Harvey Weinstein's continue preying on subordinates. We can pretend that Gavin is not a problem, but it will always be a problem.
In 1994, I worked for Walter Capps and his congressional campaign. I learned from Walter that men could run for office and demonstrate integrity. Walter eventually lost that race by less than 1%, but he still took a progressive stand on LGBT issues when few others in the party would. Because of Walter's integrity, I felt comfortable leaving the Peace and Freedom Party and becoming a Democrat. As I am becoming older, I want a candidate that I can trust. Is it time for me to leave and join Romney and Kasich (or Tepper?)
We must stop being the party of Gavin and Bill. If we don't, not only will we lose another election, we will have lost our way forward. I don't want us to miss representation in DC again. I want us to have the first woman Vice President. After the election, I want reporters to ask, "Who will Eleni Kounalakis appoint to replace Kamala?"
